Breaking Cover


Breaking Cover is an innovative and interactive initiative created by Red Deer Players in conjunction with the Red Deer Public Library. It was first created through a partnership with the Friends of the Library as a means of working with local and Alberta wide playwrights to workshop scripts in progress, using a group of experienced Red Deer actors and directors.

​An integral part of the process is the interaction between audience, director, playwright and cast, following the performance. This interaction provides the playwright with the opportunity to see how this new work is received and perceived by an audience.

After the first successful season of Breaking Cover, Red Deer Players is thrilled that the decision was made to adopt it as full fledged Red Deer Public Library program, for a second season.

​All our readings take place in the Snell Auditorium at the Red Deer Public Library, at 1:45 pm  

Season 1

The Thin Grey Line - Blaine Newton - September 23 , 2018

An aging clown, a shabby Shakespearean, and a Lothario well past his prime walk into an audition -- it's not a joke; it's reality. Old actors never die, they just whine about the lack of opportunities.
As part of our play-reading series “Breaking Cover”, Red Deer Players presents “The Thin Grey Line”.

This new play by Red Deer playwright, sketch writer, improviser and sometime engineer Blaine Newton considers the lives of three over-the-hill actors backstage during the performance of a less than stellar play, as well as the young stage manager with the unenviable task of getting the three on stage on time and in the right costumes

Where Heroes Lie - David Haas - January 13, 2019

This reading is the third in the Breaking Cover series of rehearsed readings of brand new plays. This play, recounting the experiences of the family of a WW2 deceased Canadian soldier, will be presented to a live audience with the playwright in attendance. 
This play has been accepted for the 2019 Edmonton Fringe festival, and this process will assist the playwright, David Haas, understand the nuances of his creation, and fine tune the script as he moves forward in the creative process

A Jew and a Muslim Walk Into a Comedy - Caroline Russell-King - December 9, 2018

A Jew and a Muslim Walk into a Comedy is about a Jewish Synagogue that sponsors a Syrian refugee family. Pain plus time equals comedy, that’s the formula. It's a drama getting here, it can become a comedy once they arrive. In a world where people are so conscious of Antisemitism and Islamophobia, when well meaning cultures clash, there is humour. Even in the interviews for this play the refugees, who escaped the most grueling circumstances imaginable, sat in the living room of one of the amazing women who brought them to Canada and laughed and laughed.  They are the examples of wonderful human beings trying their best in a world gone mad..

Swingers - Albert Azzara - March 10, 2019


"Two teenagers meet on the playground of an elementary school and start a relationship that lasts decades. Through good times and bad, through laughter and tears, they persevere in their friendship and relationship, always returning to the same playground over the years. And to think it all started with Romeo and Juliet. A sometimes painful but ultimately fulfilling look at the lives of a couple of "swingers."

Frankenstein - by Mary Shelley, an Adaptation by Andrew G. Cooper - June 9, 2019

Frankenstein presents the tragedy of young Victor Frankenstein and the nameless grotesque monster who haunts him in this new adaptation of Mary Shelley's spine-chilling classic Gothic tale. Victor is obsessed with discovering the secrets of science and nature, but nothing can prepare him for what he brings to life one dark night in the heart of winter. So begins a life or death adventure as Victor battles the demon he creates and the demons inside himself

Season 1 photographs

Interested playwrights are invited to submit their work for consideration to reddeerplayers.com